Leadership Heros

If you were to think of a great leader you admire, who would come to mind?

We love to heroise leaders as these all-powerful figures who can command a room, craft a vision and charm followers round to their way of thinking. The notion of the ‘great man’ leader was the first type of leadership to gain popularity in management studies back in the early 1900s, and while the idea of the ‘perfect leader’ is not so prevalent any more, we tend to still look to these larger-than-life characters as our role models for leadership. Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and Jack Welch to name a few, pull more than their fair share of weight when we talk about our leadership hero's.?

This idea of the leader as a hero naturally puts a gap between us and them. They are somehow out of reach and have abilities beyond those of us mere regular humans. If the past few years have taught us anything it is that this is far from the truth. Leaders are fallible, possibly even more so than us. Building someone up as a perfect leader can have negative consequences. In their pursuit of power some leaders’ rise to the top can bring with it a lack of empathy for others, a feeling of being ‘untouchable’ and that the rules don’t apply to them and an ego that is buffered by a network of people agreeing with them. Values such as humility, honest and integrity can fall by the wayside, replaced by values such as being the best, personal power and ambition. Whilst not necessarily bad on their own, these values need a counterbalance to keep them in check.?

The fall of once-lauded leaders such as Sam Bankman-Fried, Elizabeth Holmes and Adam Neumann should be a warning to us to avoid the hubris amongst the next hot-shot leaders and recognise that these supposed super-leaders are no better than us and the leaders we see closer to home.?

Instead of looking to famous leaders where we only see a carefully crafted PR image of who they are, let’s look instead to the people we know lead with the values. The grandparents who taught us about life, the parents who worked hard to give us a life better than they had and the teachers and first bosses who shaped the people we are today.?

So, again, who is a great leader you admire??